Things Felt and Known
by FunkyWashingMachine
Summary: Narti and Kova's first meeting


The first creature she didn't kill was small. There was no one else in the place, and then there was the small creature. It was different from the others, it didn't shout or give off anger, and it was small.

She hissed at it. It hissed back, with the soft sound of something moving through air. And then it was quiet, and it didn't come closer, and that was when she knew she wouldn't kill it, not yet.

Her shoulder was hurt from the weapon. She had seen how it looked when she was touching the man in charge. And that was what pain looked like, slick and a different color. It looked the same on every creature she'd told him to kill.

Her head was burning. She could still feel it, still see it even though she wasn't touching him, the weapon she made him point at himself when the others were down, between the eyes she was looking through, in that moment they were HER eyes and she hurt, she burned, she hadn't stopped hurting since she did it, since she ended both him and herself and the creature that was the two of them. It was worse than her shoulder, worse than the medicine, worse than anything she could remember. She felt broken and sick and she wanted to sleep.

Her next sleep would be a very bad one.

She wanted to sleep, but there was a creature in the room with her, it was a creature she had never met before, and that meant it was not a time to sleep.

She waited for the creature to leave. And the creature sat waiting there, too.

* * *

The creature was small and the creature was quiet. It was the only one like it. It was quiet like her and it was still, like a wall.

When she moved to another room, it came. Slowly and quiet and distant enough. She wouldn't kill it. Not yet.

She was thirsty. But there was no one to give her any water.

* * *

She had a very bad sleep. She hadn't meant to. She snapped up and listened, since the creature was somewhere, and the creature was alive and it might try to hurt her.

She heard it then, near the corner, making a very soft sound.

She moved closer.

It was humming a different energy. It had gone to sleep, too.

She could tell from the threads running off that it was a much better sleep than she'd had.

The creature was small and it was sleeping and she could kill it if she had to.

She went in slow toward the creature. The sounds and the waves came gentle.

She came in slow and tested a thread of its mind coming off.

The creature that made this thread was different.

It was a creature more of feeling than thought. She'd known for a long time that feelings were the stronger one. They changed you in the body and not just the mind. They were the deepest thoughts of all.

She thought that maybe she could like this creature.

* * *

The creature was soft. She was touching it, but only with her hand. The waves of its sleeping were soft underneath.

And then, humming electric on her fingers, it woke. This creature of feeling, small and soft and breathing, with the prickling energy of something aware.

She should have been more afraid than she was. But the creature was small and it was still, and its mind was like nothing she'd ever known.

Awake, its mind was different. She could feel it even without going inside.

It liked that she was touching it. It was awake and aware and it liked that she was touching it. And she liked that it liked that. She had never met anything that liked to be touched. She had never liked touching anything.

She touched it with the other hand. The creature turned happy.

The creature was happy and it liked her touching it. Slowly, very slow, she went down a thread of its mind.

_ What if he gets killed, _came a voice.

_ I wouldn't send him in if I thought that was likely._

_ But this thing is crazy, _said the first one.

_ It isn't crazy. It's upset._

_ Upset people kill things, too._

_ Would you rather go instead?_

The first voice took a breath. _Fine._ _Kova it is._

That moment seemed fresh. She wondered who those people were. Those people who spoke without anger.

* * *

It was a strange thing to think about, but she found that the small creature liked her. It was sitting on her now, very warm. She liked that it was warm. She touched it again and it made a long bunch of sounds that she'd never heard anything like, but that somehow seemed calming and nice.

It was a creature of feeling and it felt like she was good.

Good.

She was good and she was thirsty and the only creature she hadn't killed was sitting in her lap.

She liked it very much.

The creature was a thing that the others didn't understand, it didn't speak like they did, and they liked it and held it all the same.

It was giving her a feeling, the kind that happened in her heart and her muscles and gut. She felt like she wanted something.

The creature was very soft and warm. It moved with each breath and it liked when she touched it.

She didn't know why, but she gave it something of hers. She gave it cages and needles and waiting.

The creature had people who held it, and it gave her that.

She had never met any good people before.

The creature could tell. And sitting there on her lap, it gave her another thing, too.

* * *

The creature had a name that it knew. She had a name, too, but she didn't know it. To know a name was to feel it. She had heard her name, but she didn't know it.

Kova had stayed in her lap for a long time. She was thirsty, but she wouldn't have been able to fix that even if he wasn't there.

She was feeling a lot better now. Her shoulder still hurt, but her head didn't burn. Not as much.

It was nice to have him there.

And then there was a sound from the doorway. Several halls past, she could hear it, the footsteps that would be coming here soon, in this room here with her and the creature.

She tightened, but the creature stayed calm.

"This is the one," someone said outside the door. It was one of the voices, one of the ones that Kova knew.

"Are we on the defensive?"

"No," said the voice. "Look at the reading."

"Yeah, I don't know what all that stuff means."

"It means that our envoy's vitals are within the normal range."

"And your point is?"

"That if he were agitated, they'd be higher."

"So you're gonna trust this thing?"

"Until I have reason not to, I am."

"Yeah, with all due respect, Sir, you're crazy."

The other voice made a soft little sound that sounded like laughter. But that couldn't be right. It didn't sound angry or mean.

"So I've heard," said the voice, the one that Kova knew. "Now, let's say hello to our new friend."

And slowly, the door hissed open.


End file.
